“Ancient Greece meets New York City, circa the early 1980s.” You don’t get it ether? It’s
“Irrational.”
EMU Theatre held the world premiere of David Wells’ musical staged reading, an interesting format for a theatre production. The production was held on Jan. 24, 25 and 26.
“Irrational” isn’t your average play in the making. It had all the fixings for a future Broadway hit: cultist-like Greek philosophy, romance, the discovery of one’s self and spectacular music.
The reading followed the life of Hippasus, a con man who gets caught up in the Pythagorean cult, a group known for worshiping rational numbers and who sing about mathematical principles with a few groovy dance moves.
Production began in October 2013 and was a work in progress until opening night. Kelsey Kerkes, who played Eloris in the performance, received a new song only days before, and the second half of the show wasn’t even added until three weeks before opening night.
Lynnette Kruse, an EMU student in her fourth year, came in not thinking much about the musical, but left having enjoyed the production.
Many audience members were intrigued by the concept of a staged reading, a reading of the script without props or costumes and with limited blocking.